JAKARTA, Indonesia — Competing in the 18th Asian Games is a challenging experience in itself, but more so for Filipino athletes bound for Palembang, second hub of the continental multi-sport competition in the provincial capital of South Sumatra, even before they set foot in the playing arena.

This was the fate suffered by a small Filipino contingent composed of the lawn tennis, shooting and medical teams, which straggled in Palembang early Friday morning into the Asian Games Athletics Village following an overnight layover here.

Arriving near midnight in the Indonesian capital after a “bumpy” three-hour Philippine Airlines flight from Manila due to turbulence, the Filipino bets were shuttled to the domestic terminal and had to cool their heels for another six hours, most of them hardly getting a wink at the stuffy Asian Games lounge.

The distance to the entrance to the luggage counter inside the terminal is close to a kilometer, double that for the gate to the connecting flight to Palembang.

It was an ordeal for the Filipino shooters, who were held up by Indonesian customs officials for nearly two hours over the ammunition that they brought in, particularly for trap shooter Hagen Topacio.

Because his ammo was not reflected in his declaration and not seen in the Asian Games computer system, Topacio, a two-time Asian Games veteran, was forced to surrender his supply worth P15,000 in Jakarta.